1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component, and more particularly, to an electronic component including an external electrode made of a plated material and formed by plating.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a related-art electronic component, there is known a multilayer electronic component disclosed in, e.g., International Publication No. 2007/049456. The disclosed multilayer electronic component includes a laminate, internal electrodes, and external electrodes. The laminate is formed by laminating (stacking) a plurality of insulator layers. The internal electrodes define a capacitor and are exposed at an end surface of the laminate. The external electrodes are each made of an electrolytic plating deposit and are disposed to directly cover portions of the internal electrode, which are exposed from the laminate.
However, as described below, the multilayer electronic component disclosed in International Publication No. 2007/049456 has a problem in that the external electrodes are apt to peel off from the laminate. As an electronic component other than the multilayer electronic component described above, there is known, for example, an electronic component including an external electrode that is formed by coating an electroconductive paste over an end surface of a laminate. The electroconductive paste is made of metal and glass. The glass serves as an adhesive. More specifically, when the external electrode is fired, the glass is softened and then coagulated, whereby the external electrode is fixed to the laminate. Therefore, the external electrode is relatively hard to peel off from the laminate.
On the other hand, in the multilayer electronic component disclosed in International Publication No. 2007/049456, because the external electrode is formed by plating, the external electrode contains no glass. Accordingly, the external electrode of the multilayer electronic component disclosed in International Publication No. 2007/049456 is fixed to the laminate with a reduced strength as compared to the external electrode that is formed using the electroconductive paste. Therefore, in the electronic component disclosed in International Publication No. 2007/049456, the external electrode is more apt to peel off from the laminate than in the electronic component that includes the external electrode formed by using the electroconductive paste.